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Microtia What Parents Need To Know

Having a child with any type of congenital disfigurement can be heartbreaking for a parent. Thankfully, there are treatment options available for those children born with microtia. As a parent, you should be aware of not only these options, but the strategies and types of care you should provide for your child to help them deal with their differences. While no article can be a substitute for real world therapy and the assistance and advice of a trained doctor, here are some things that can help ease your mind about the decisions and challenges you are soon to face.

It is perhaps human nature to begin questioning your role in your child’s development of microtia. You may find yourself placing blame on yourself or on each other. Not only is this unproductive, there are very few known causes of the condition so placing blame is not really applicable to the situation. Before you begin questioning the things you may have done or not done during the pregnancy (did you eat enough or too much, did you drink too much alcohol, did you smoke, etc.), take a step back and realize the way forward is not by looking into the past. Relieve yourself of your blame and put your energies to the future.

Many parents are hurt and confused when their baby is born with microtia. This is due to the fact that it is seldom diagnosed through the ultrasound. Though this is changing somewhat as technology improves, it is still an often missed condition and therefore comes as a bit of a shock. However, once again, there’s no reason to start throwing blame. Your doctor and the technicians who performed the ultrasound were much more concerned with more serious, potentially life threatening conditions when they looked at the images and that is why the development of the outer ear went unnoticed.

Moving forward means taking stock of the microtia condition of your child, seeking the advice and counsel of a qualified specialist, and making decisions about what is best for your family and for your child. In many cases, there is no deafness or hearing loss to accompany the outer ear disfigurement. While this is certainly a good thing, it shouldn’t distract you from the very real issues that come along with disfigurement of this kind. Without correction, the condition could have serious self-esteem implications for the child and correction should probably be on your radar. Talk to your doctor and find the path that makes the most sense for you.

Dealing with microtia can be difficult and confusing for parents. For more information, please visit .

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